180 BRITISH BIRDS. 



in a garden. This dwelling was almost covered with 

 ivy : round some of the windows was a light trellis, 

 with which roses and other flowering plants were inter- 

 woven, and on the sill of one of them, and in a snug 

 recess within the trellis, the nest was formed. It was 

 the window of a parlour, from which she was often ob- 

 served by the different members of the family, though she 

 would frequently have escaped notice but for the bright 

 sparkling of her eye. But as the window was not open- 

 ed, and care was taken not to disturb her, she in due 

 time hatched her brood, and carried off her young in 

 safety. 



A pair of robins chose for their dwelling a small cot- 

 tage, w^hich served as a depository for potatoes, harness, 

 and various other articles, and was often visited by its 

 owners. It closely adjoined, too, a large blacksmith's 

 shop, where a huge hammer, worked not by hand, but 

 by water, kept up a constant noise. These circum- 

 stances might be supposed to alarm the settlers, but 

 they were undisturbed : they entered through a windows- 

 frame, the lattice of which had been removed, and actu- 

 ally built their first nest, early in the spring, in a child's 

 covered cart, which, with its horse attached to it, was 

 hanging to a peg over the fire-place, and just afforded 

 space for the purpose. So curious a circumstance at- 



